Glasgay! Film Festival Preview

This year’s Glasgay! is (unofficially) starting with the 23rd London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival touring slate, touching down at the GFT from 3 September. The selection for 2009 is kinda like The Breakfast Club: there’s a geek, a stud, a princess, a tough guy and a freak – and they’re all making one appearance only. Thematically, it’s nicely spread across the board: there’s always at least a couple of dramas about the actual process of coming out (and staying out), but this year’s programme also has gritty crime, gentle comedy, a rather challenging documentary and, er, horror. Which is really quite cool; this is cinema about universal issues that happen to be about gay characters, which can only help towards further dissolving the ‘us and them’ attitude.

A highlight has to be LLGFF’s chosen centrepiece film, Ghosted which recently premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and sees writer-director Monika Treut move into what is, for her, tamer waters. Ironic, given that Ghosted tackles lesbianism and inter-racial relationships, with a dose of supernatural ‘can love exist beyond the grave?’ shenanigans thrown in. Praised for its beautiful portrayal of both the respective cities involved (Hamburg and Taipei) and the burgeoning romance between its central characters, the story concerns German artist Sophie, whose lover Ai-Ling dies in mysterious circumstances. Travelling to Taiwan with a video installation honouring her dead partner, Sophie is seduced by journalist Mei-Li, who is a little too interested in Ai-Ling’s fate. Treut explained: “The lesbian relationship is not really the centre of the film, it’s more like a given… what really triggers the drama is the misunderstandings between the cultures, how different cultures deal with the loss of a loved one.”

A similar issue is raised in Pedro, the new film from the Oscar-winning writer of last year’s epic Milk, Dustin Lance Black. Based on the life of Pedro Zamora, who in 1994 became the first openly HIV-positive man on TV when he appeared on The Real World: San Francisco (the original Big Brother). Diagnosed at 17 and deceased by 22, in his short life Zamora made massive steps forward in humanizing the disease. Actor Alex Loynaz (a relative unknown) has been receiving accolades left, right and centre for his portrayal of the title character, as has Justina Machado (Six Feet Under) who plays his sister. 

And if you need a bit of light-hearted escapism, try Bandaged, from fetish and BDSM director Maria Beatty. Described as The English Patient meets Eyes Without a Face, think gloomy gothic halls, starched white nurse outfits, inexplicable screams in the night and bandages used as a means of seduction. And we haven't even mentioned the docu-drama on London rent boys (Greek Pete), two very different comedies on the trials of adopting as a gay man, or a no-holds-barred gay-bashing drama from a 21-year-old Brit. This year's Glasgay! Film Festival is a strong lead into the Glasgay! festival proper, and a much-appreciated chance to immerse yourself in some of the best that cinema currently has to offer.